One of the most appealing aspects of anime is the seemingly endless genres that cater to niche interests and fringe communities. There's probably an anime series out there for everyone, but this can also create extremely polarizing programs that are acquired tastes.
Comedy is extremely subjective and there are plenty of anime that attempt to build laughs from strange places. It’s sublime when humor manages to transcend language and culture and connects on a universal level. That being said, some of the anime that are viewed as comedy classics aren’t guaranteed to make everyone laugh.
Updated February 16, 2023 by Daniel Kurland: Anime covers an incredibly broad range that helps it tackle any subject matter imaginable, but some come more naturally than others. Anime specializes in fantastical and heightened stories and this means that it can be difficult to nail the subtleties and specificity of comedy. Make no mistake, there is no shortage of ridiculously funny anime, but they can result in polarizing programs that only connect with niche audiences. Comedy is subjective material that’s difficult to pull off and this balancing act grows even more challenging when it’s filtered through the radical lens of anime.
15 Ping-Pong Club
26 Episodes
Plenty of anime comedies celebrate lovable losers, but Ping-Pong Club seriously pushes the limits of decency with its crude and juvenile sense of humor. Six social outcasts attempt to use their school's ping-pong club as a perpetual source of schemes to befriend the opposite sex and increase their popularity.
The comedy in Ping-Pong Club goes for broke and occasionally feels a lot like the earlier seasons of South Park as these young kids engage in R-rated dialogue. Each episode of Ping-Pong Club is divided into two stories, which turns 26 episodes into 52 awkward exercises.
14 Urusei Yatsura (2022)
18 Episodes (Ongoing; 46 Confirmed)
Rumiko Takahashi is a prolific mangaka who's responsible for fantasy-skewing action and comedy series like Ranma ½, InuYasha, and Urusei Yatsura. The 1980s Urusei Yatsura ran for nearly 200 episodes and properly captures the chaotic comedy of Takahashi's manga. 2022's Urusei Yatsura reboot from David Production is still in its infancy, but its comedy attacks in full-force.
Ataru is a slacker teen who finds himself betrothed to an unpredictable and overbearing alien named Lum. Urusei Yatsura’s extraterrestrial supporting characters are all caricatures, but their gags still land. Urusei Yatsura's sense of humor feels indebted to the 1980s and a more relentless style of comedy, which won't necessarily connect with everyone.
13 Nichijou
26 Episodes
Nichijou claims to be about a boring "ordinary life," but it soon becomes clear that Nichijou's definition of "ordinary" is anything but. Nichijou explores slice of life silliness between a trio of friends and their odd acquaintances, which include a talking cat and robot maid.
Nichijou effortlessly turns pedestrian stories into unbelievable escapades and it's never quite clear when Nichijou will embrace absurdity. The whiplash nature of Nichijou's tonal sensibilities won't work for everyone and it's proven itself to be an acquired taste, but those who love it are fully invested in Nichijou.
12 Skull-Face Bookseller Honda-San
12 Episodes
Skull-Face Bookseller Honda-san is a hilarious blend of slice of life mundanity with over the top characters. Based on the real life of mangaka Honda, Skull-Face Bookseller breaks down authentic experiences from the humble staff of a bookstore, but the anime's main character just so happens to be a skeleton.
The visual of this spooky skeleton who gets frazzled by company bureaucracy or customer complaints is highly entertaining. Episodes are also only 11 minutes long, which means that Skull-Face Bookseller Honda-san flies through gags with a fast-paced intensity that works for its visuals and premise, but may also cause too much dissonance for certain viewers.
11 Shimoneta: A Boring World Where The Concept Of Dirty Jokes Doesn’t Exist
12 Episodes
Shimoneta, also known as A Boring World Where the Concept of Dirty Jokes Doesn't Exist, is a wild comedy that's all about censorship and repression that's either going to connect with audiences or completely fall flat. Anime has a reputation for overly indulgent "fan service" and Shimoneta leans into this attitude with a society that's been forced into chaste behavior for over a decade.
Tanukichi enters high school and quickly gets roped up into a revolutionary organization that strives to spread lewd propaganda across society and actively fight against this repressive government. Lewd freedom fighters are silly to begin with, but it's subject matter that’s too juvenile for others.
10 Pop Team Epic
26 Episodes
Pop Team Epic is a ridiculous gag anime where absolutely nothing is sacred. This unpredictable avalanche of comedy ostensibly operates as an absurdist sketch series that delivers bite-sized doses of silliness.
There are genuine jokes in Pop Team Epic, but it's very much a series that enjoys trolling its audience and engaging in unrepentant meme-based humor, which is admittedly not for everyone. Some episodes are more normal than others, but each installment basically plays out twice, with the second take functioning as a nightmare version that makes odd, benign changes to the original.
9 Excel Saga
26 Episodes
Excel Saga is close to 25 years old and yet it's still one of the most clever parodies of the anime industry. The 26-episode series follows Excel as she attempts to secure city-wide domination for her revolutionary group, ACROSS.
That being said, the plot is practically irrelevant in Excel Saga and the true charm of the gag series comes out in how every episode transforms the anime into a totally different genre of storytelling. Excel Saga's cultural touchstones and points of parody still land, but they require an intense knowledge of the medium in order to keep up with the mile-a-minute pacing of its quirky comedy.
8 Osomatsu-San
75 Episodes, 3 Movies
Osomatsu-kun was a perfectly serviceable family comedy and slice-of-life series for the younger crowd during the 1960s and '80s. On the other hand, Osomatsu-san is the modern reboot that matures the series' central sextuplets into a group of slacker adults who are petrified of contributing to society. The character dynamics between the Matsuno sextuplets make for great comedy.
However, the anime also plays by its own rules when it comes to its outrageous satirical impulses. Some episodes are somber meditations on loneliness while others broadly lampoon Mobile Suit Gundam. It's a chaotic and disorienting approach to storytelling that audiences either love or hate.
7 Haven't You Heard? I'm Sakamoto
13 Episodes
There's just over a dozen episodes of Haven't You Heard? I'm Sakamoto, but not a second is wasted in the comedy anime. Plenty of series look at annoying wunderkind students who never falter — much to everyone else's chagrin — but there's such unique energy and intention behind this series that will surprise unsuspecting audiences.
The seemingly episodic comedy culminates in a powerful conclusion that only further reflects the brilliance of this oddball gem. That being said, the repetitive nature of Sakamoto's successes and how he remains infallible will wear thin for some.
6 Bobobo-Bo Bo-Bobo
76 Episodes
Bobobo-bo Bo-bobo is 76 episodes of pure lunacy that fulfills shonen storytelling tropes but then proceeds to tear them to pieces. The anime's laborious title gives a pretty good impression that this anime is a joke.
Bobobo takes on enemies with his super-powerful nose hairs and the characters subscribe to a way of life known as hajike that celebrates the art of nonsense as a way to confuse the opponent. This strange brand of comedy will either work for audiences or will immediately frustrate them as they fail to find the purpose in such a silly endeavor with illogical stakes and storytelling.
5 Asobi Asobase
15 Episodes
Some of the funniest comedies are the ones that hide behind simple ideas and use this mundane setup to deliver surreal laughs. Asobi Asobase looks like any other cheerful slice-of-life comedy that's set at a school and follows a group of lovable misfits, which in this case includes Olivia, Hanako, and Kasumi in their self-made Pastimers Club.
Asobi Asobase's loose structure opens itself up to the unpredictable impulses and fleets of fancy from this trio of girls. There's such affable energy to Asobi Asobase, but some audiences don't give the Pastimers Club enough of a chance.
4 Space Dandy
26 Episodes
At first glance, Space Dandy might look like some cheap ripoff of Cowboy Bebop, Outlaw Star, or any of the other bounty hunter space operas that dominate the medium. Coming from the prolific Shinichiro Watanabe, Space Dandy takes advantage of the limitless nature of the universe with its atypical storytelling.
Each planet visited becomes an opportunity to indulge in a totally new genre or show off a different art style. Space Dandy engages in some grand ideas and gets in on the multiverse trend way ahead of the curve. The sheer audacity and ambition of Space Dandy are hard to deny, but not everyone is a fan of concept episodes and genre parodies.
3 The Disastrous Life Of Saiki K.
56 Episodes
Kusuo Saiki has become a surprisingly popular shonen character over the past decade and despite his extraordinary psychic abilities, he's a character who plays around in comedies instead of action series. Saiki's greatest burden is that he simply wants to be left alone, so he'll use his incredible psychic powers to orchestrate convoluted scenarios all in the name of perpetual anonymity.
It's hard to not fall in love with Saiki and his many unusual friends, but its frenetic pacing is too much for some. Jokes stampede over one another instead of letting each gag breathe. This chaotic energy keeps certain audiences away.
2 Cromartie High School
26 Episodes
Cromartie High School adopts a sterile art style that's decidedly not funny, but all of this is in service to how the show broadly lampoons the juvenile delinquent subgenre prevalent in anime and manga. Cromartie High School is simultaneously ridiculous and bone-dry with its comedy.
Much of this has to do with the series' main character, Takashi Kamiyama, who's not so much an active individual as he's a blank slate who's exposed to the school's many eccentricities. Cromartie High School won't telegraph some of its jokes, but then it will also have a robot and Freddie Mercury among Takashi's classmates, which speaks to the anime's contrasting tastes.
1 Panty & Stocking With Garter Belt
14 Episodes
Panty & Stocking with Garterbelt indulges in the inherent extremes of anime. This crude comedy follows two disgraced angels who hunt ghosts by turning their lingerie into weapons. It's a bold series that's not meant to be taken seriously, and its unique aesthetics are viewed by many to be abrasive instead of expressive.
Panty & Stocking with Garterbelt ended its one-season run in 2010, but more than a dozen years later, it's set for a modern extension from Studio TRIGGER. It's unclear if this update will contain the same irreverent comedy and sense of shamelessness, but TRIGGER is a fearless company that doesn't fear controversy.